An integral sunshade for optical reception antennas
- Author:
- Kerr, E. L.
- Published:
- Nov 15, 1988.
- Physical Description:
- 1 electronic document
Online Version
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- Restrictions on Access:
- Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available.
Free-to-read Unrestricted online access - Summary:
- Optical reception antennas (telescopes) must be capable of receiving communications even when the deep-space laser source is located within a small angle of the Sun. Direst sunlight must not be allowed to shine on the primary reflector of an optical reception antenna, because too much light would be scattered into the signal detectors. A conventional sunshade that does not obstruct the antenna aperture would have to be about five times longer than its diameter in order to receive optical communications at a solar elongation of 12 degrees without interference. Such a long sunshade could not be accommodated within the dome of any existing large-aperture astronomical facility, and providing a new dome large enough would be prohibitively expensive. It is also desirable to reduce the amount of energy a space-based large-aperture optical reception facility would expend orienting a structure with such a sizable moment of inertia. Since a large aperture optical reception antenna will probably have a hexagonally segmented primary reflector, a sunshade consisting of hexagonal tubes can be mounted in alignment with the segmentation without producing any additional geometric obstruction. An analysis of the duration and recurrence of solar-conjunction communications outages (caused when a deep-space probe near an outer planet appears to be closer to the Sun than a given minimum solar elongation), and the design equations for the integral sunshade are appended.
- Other Subject(s):
- Collection:
- NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Collection.
- Note:
- Document ID: 19890010976.
Accession ID: 89N20347.
The Telecommunications and Data Acquisition Report; p 180-195. - Terms of Use and Reproduction:
- No Copyright.
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